Instagram
Presenting my first quilt finish of 2020! The center block sub-units were pieced by Debbie Kratovil (swipe to the end for the pattern specifics). She gave them to me (via her daughter) three years ago and at the end of December, I decided it was about time I put them into a quilt! She also gave me the extra purple fabric that I used for the outer border. So I just had to add the inner polkadot border and the backing. This measures about 42 inches square and is destined to be another quilt donated to Early Childhood Headstart via the @baltimoremqg. Debbie is a prolific quilter, teacher, and author but she doesn’t seem to have an Instagram account. If you Google her name, you will find her blog if you’d like to know more about her and her work. ♥️ . . . It’s been years since I used this particular quilting pattern, but I love how a tiny change in the angle at the top of the quilt results in such a big difference at the bottom of the quilt. You know that saying, “Small hinges move big doors”? Here’s a graphic representation of that! ♥️ (I love @healthymoving’s take on mindset and implementing small, incremental change if you are wanting any encouragement on that in the new year.) #salmonandsouvlakisews #baltimoremqg #charmcitysewcial #debbiekratovilI am working on samples for a demonstration that I am doing at the @baltimoremqg guild meeting on Sunday. I am demonstrating the freezer paper method for constructing words to be added to a quilt. This is the #refrigeratormagnetpattern from @elizabethagh. Our guild is doing a one word quilt challenge, as part of our yearlong 10-year anniversary celebration. Currently, I am working on the letters A, C, and T. There are four more letters to go. Can you guess which one word I’ve chosen for the year? 😀 #salmonandsouvlakisews #baltimoremqg #charmcitysewcialHere are my top nine posts and my year of color. Family, quilting, and lots of colors. Sounds about right! 😍 Happy New Year’s Eve!Handmade Christmas 2019: reusable teabags. That’s it. 😆 In years past, I sewed and sewed and gave handmade sewn presents to nearly everyone. But this year? It was a really rough fall that I hope I never have to repeat it again. And when I got to December, not much sewing happened (at least compared to my high output years). But I did make about 60 of these reusable teabags, made with 100% cotton organic unbleached muslin from @dharmatradingco. I gave them away along with dried peppermint from @mountainroseherbs. It seriously makes the best peppermint tea you’ve ever had. ♥️ In the picture, you can see that one of the teabags has also been used with black tea because it’s beautifully dyed. 😍 . . . How to use them? Fill with 1/2-1 tablespoon of loose tea (for herbal tea you need the larger amount), brew as usual, take the teabag out, allow to cool, turn inside out to remove the wet tea leaves, rinse, and dry to use again. It’s zero waste tea, especially if you compost the tea leaves! 🌏 #salmonandsouvlakisews #reusableteabags #zerowaste #zerowastehome”Earthquake Consolation” is a series of six quilts that I made last summer (June/July 2019) as presents for my family and in response to the November 30, 2018 magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska. With too many thoughts to be contained in one little Instagram post, I dusted off the blog and wrote a couple blog posts instead. See the link in profile if you want to read more and to see many more pictures. ♥️ . . . This was my most ambitious sewing project of the year by far! Quilt design inspired by a free tutorial from @emily_dennis_. Almost all the fabrics are #konacottonsolids from @robertkaufman, from my stash. Flannel backs from @joann_stores #salmonandsouvlakisews #charmcitysewcial #baltimoremqg #quiltersofinstagramI am really intent on finishing up all my outstanding projects in my sewing room (either finishing them or giving it away to someone else who might be interested in actually finishing it). So with that in mind, in late November, I made this baby quilt from blocks which I received from my bee mates in #beehiveswarmmerrilee in 2017. @driftedindrive was our leader for that year. Thanks Merrilee! After I assembled it, it didn’t feel quite fun enough for a kid so I added the little turtle appliqué. And then I had fun piecing together all my cute green fabrics for the back, including turtles, bugs in jars, frogs, and green beans! I donated this one to @baltimoremqg’s work with Early Head Start. . . . Block pattern: #treasurehuntblock from @blossomheartquilts #charmcitysewcial #blossomheartquilts #salmonandsouvlakisews #baltimoremqgThis year, I realized I was running a little late on three bird ornaments. In Ellie’s case, I was nine years late. 😂 For the two little boys, they are just 2.5 and 3 so I’m not doing too bad. I generally aim to make these in time for the first Christmas. But hey, better late than never right? 😊 . . . Little bird pattern is from @purlsoho. #salmonandsouvlakisews #charmcitysewcialFor the third year in a row, I sewed my mother-in-law pillow for her birthday (which is early in December). This year, I used a 150% enlarged #quatrefoilblock from @blossomheartquilts. It’s 20” square, sewn with fabrics from my stash. I just keep these particular fabrics together and reuse them every year (although I’m staring to run out ☹️). I love the rich red and green with gold combination. One of these years I should really sew some Christmas pillows for my own house. 😆 I made a Velcro closure for the back and sewed on the binding at half an inch to make it be a little more pronounced part of the design. In the last picture, you can see the binding as well as my very most favorite color of thread (used for the quilting in this project). 💛 In the picture with all three, you can also see my pillows begun in my @baltimoremqg classes with @victoriafindlaywolfe and @duringquiettime. I love seeing them all together! . . . #charmcitysewcial #baltimoremqg #salmonandsouvlakisews #quiltersofinstagramI am feeling like an accomplished grown-up today because I remembered to polish my silver the day before Thanksgiving. 😀 Also, “polish my silver” feels very grown-up to say. 😂 . . . I am blessed to have silver from both sides of my family. The set on the left is from my mom’s family. My Granny collected box tops for the set. The silver on the right comes from my dad’s family. The two little butter knives have the initials “M” for my paternal grandmother’s maiden name and “R”, for my paternal great-aunt‘s married name. She didn’t have any children and so my grandmother inherited her things when she died. My dad is an only child and so we ended up with a lot of silver. . . . This summer, while we were in Alaska for our family reunion, my dad asked us kids to each take silver with us. I am looking forward to using it on our Thanksgiving table tomorrow. 😍 (You can see some silver polishing process pictures in my stories right now. I just used my baking soda cleaning paste for polishing and it worked great.)Last Saturday night, I managed to whip together this little quilt (approx. 36” square). I already had the quilt top assembled so in under two hours, I was able to make the quilt sandwich, quilt it and sew the binding to the top. I did most of the hand sewing of the binding during our @baltimoremqg guild meeting last Sunday and, as was my goal, was able to hand it off to join the other baby quilts that our guild donates to a local charity. . . . Each of the blocks in the quilt top was sewn by a member of my guild. In 2017, I participated in the “quilt in a box” bee where I provided the fabric and each other bee member was free to sew whatever design she wanted to. Some of my most devoted readers may remember my posts from a couple years ago of blocks that I had sewn using other people’s fabric. 😍 . . And, if you swipe to the last picture, you will see the documentation of the other project I managed to get sewn over the past three months. There were six boy babies born in our church in 2019 (and no girls!). That combined with a couple other babies meant that I needed to sew eight boy flannel blankets. 🥰 . . . #salmonandsouvlakisews #charmcitysewcial #baltimoremqg #quiltinaboxDespite quite a few frustrating moments this fall, my fall garden harvest is coming along quite nicely! Those are Parisienne carrots, at close to full size and shape. So cute! 😍 The middle picture is today’s harvest, which includes fancy salad greens, red turnips, white turnips, carrots, and just a few sugar snap peas. The final picture is an aerial view from our upstairs window. Seeing it from above helps me look past all the bare patches to see that it’s pretty darn full of green and growing things. I’m sure there’s a life lesson in there somewhere. 😏 . . . All seeds from @bakercreekseeds. #salmonandsouvlakigardens #growwhatyoueat #organicgardening #parisiennecarrotIn a classic case of better late than never, this afternoon I sewed a couple #talltalesblock blocks to contribute to the @baltimoremqg group quilt, being organized by @lindaschiffer. It will be part of the group of prizes for next year’s bingo fundraiser. To me, the first block tells the story of three major projects that I sewed for Marko, all featuring these #edemberley giraffes. Swipe to see the second block, which speaks to me of an amazing classic novel, perhaps Jane Austen’s Persuasion? Thanks so much to @katebasti for allowing our guild to use this block to make this quilt. 😍 . . . #salmonandsouvlakisews #charmcitysewcial #baltimoremqg #baltimoremqgbingo Linda, I will put them in the mail to you tomorrow! Thanks for accepting them late. 🤣Categories
- AIBLW (14)
- Alaska (62)
- baby (52)
- baking (19)
- books (116)
- canning (7)
- cleaning (18)
- cooking (178)
- crafts (4)
- dating (1)
- Ellie (575)
- engagement (17)
- faith (31)
- family (343)
- Finishalong 2017 (1)
- friends (86)
- gardening (90)
- Greece (29)
- health and beauty (50)
- holidays (37)
- house/neighborhood (42)
- How To ___ Without ___ (9)
- just for fun (117)
- KIOS (80)
- knitting (2)
- linguistics (5)
- love (68)
- Mark (227)
- marriage (5)
- movie (74)
- nursing (32)
- organizing (5)
- parenting (107)
- photography (4)
- politics (12)
- pre-kids (6)
- recipe (27)
- reflecting (116)
- school (144)
- series (1)
- sewing (321)
- travel (119)
- tutorial (19)
- Uncategorized (4)
- useful beautiful (11)
- weather (60)
- wedding (40)
Archives
- December 2019
- April 2019
- December 2018
- December 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- February 2017
- December 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
Monthly Archives: October 2013
Mark Doesn’t Like the Ravens Either (who, by the way, are NOT the world champions)
Mark is in the very fun phase where he’s always shaking his head no (although, obviously, he doesn’t know what he’s saying). For some reason, he only does it when he’s sitting in his chair for meals. I figured I … Continue reading
Heading To New Heights
About a month ago, I walked out of our living room and found this: And yes, I grabbed the camera and took a picture before I moved him to safety. Quick, move the piano bench back over!! As you may … Continue reading
Posted in Mark
Leave a comment
Birthday Dinners (all three of them!)
Ellie, Nik, and I all celebrate our birthdays in a two-week span in late September/early October. Nik and I don’t generally give many (or any) gifts to each other but we do love good food! So our birthday dinners are … Continue reading
Posted in cooking, Ellie
5 Comments
The Obligatory “Children in a Lot of Pumpkins” Pictures, Because It’s Fall!
(This is the best we got of Ellie by herself – not so into picture taking that night! :)) And a few outtakes: You are actually letting this girl hold me, on a table, with pumpkins?!?!?!?! Whee!!! “I’m trying to … Continue reading
Mark Figures Out How To Climb
(and Mama starts having daily/hourly/minutely heart attacks) because why just climb into the chair if you can also climb higher to get Mama’s book? from 10/9/13
Posted in Mark
5 Comments
With My Apologies to Anyone Named Mark
For a few months now, I’ve been keeping a list of all the crazy puns I’ve been making just by using Mark’s name. I’ve been cracking myself up (and feeling a bit sorry for Mark and anyone else named Mark.) … Continue reading
Posted in just for fun, Mark
4 Comments
Mark’s First Foods (A Baby-Led Weaning List)
Several people have asked me recently about what food exactly we feed Mark. I haven’t blogged much (or at all) about Mark starting solid food. I did with Ellie (you can find all those posts here) but somehow, so much … Continue reading
